Thursday, 9 June 2016

The Little owlets were together in the chestnut tree, and one was preening the other.

Adult mates also do this.

Their father was watching them from a comfortable distance.

There were two young Magpies in the willow tree next to the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge, the Mandarin duckling was taking it easy in the shade of the railings. A few teal-blue feathers are beginning to appear. This doesn't necessarily mean that it is a drake, since females have blue secondaries.

There is a new Canada Goose family on the south side of the Serpentine.

The Greylag family with four goslings were stepping out a few yards away.

There are little Egyptian Geese all over the place, and it's hard to say how many broods there are. Casualties are high, but they more than make up for it in sheer numbers.

The Mute Swan family on the Long Water were cruising around near the Italian Garden.

The Black Swan was asleep next to the bridge, but woke up when two Mute Swans started fighting next to him, and looked around irritably.

The Great Crested Grebes from the nest on the island were feeding their chick, which is growing well.

This is the mate of the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull, who shares his kills. Her bill and legs are not as bright yellow as his.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was browsing on an ornamental allium flower in the Rose Garden.

11 comments:

By late afternoon the Greylag family had joined up with the other one, making nine young all together, and the Canada family also had been joined by the other pair with offspring, but what was notable was that the Canada group were looking after three different ages of gosling - a single large one the survivor from the raft, I wonder? Did you see the cygnets you got wonderful hatching photos of? I saw two adult swans looking forlorn near the nest but no cygnets, and having noticed yesterday they were down to three I wonder if they've been unfortunate.

It's a pity Magpies come with a reputation for being birds of ill omen. They are no more destructive than any other member of the crow family, and just as clever. Perhaps it would help to think of them as Jays in evening dress.

I've eaten chive flowers before (I assume some still had their nectar). They do have a bit of an onion/chive/what-have-you flavor to them, but it's very much subdued and blended with a more typical flowery taste.

All birds in the crow family do have similar reputations at times.On the current Springwatch a jay has taken three Great Tit chicks by swooping on when they peered out of the hole.Does seem horrible sometimes!

About Me

I have been coming to the park for more than 60 years, and watching and feeding the birds. I am not an expert birder, but I know and love the park.
My main camera is a Pentax K-1 with a Pentax DFA 150-450mm zoom lens. At 7lb it is just light enough to carry for several hours. I also carry a Nikon Coolpix P900 for video and near shots where depth of field is required, and for very long shots where its enormous 83x zoom (equal to a 2000mm lens) is more important than a high-quality image.

This list is of all the birds, including rare visitors, that have been seen in the park since 1889. Sources include W.H. Hudson, 1898 (the naturalist in whose memory the Rima memorial was built); A.H. Macpherson, 1929; and various publications of the London Natural History Society (LNHS) from 1935 to 1993, with an appendix added by Roy Sanderson in 1995 to bring the total to 177 species. Since then it has been updated from LNHS bird reports, many of these from observations by Des McKenzie, who wrote the predecessor of this blog.